Anfield has not been the fortress of old in recent times, but the home of Liverpool Football Club has never been the happiest of hunting grounds for Chelsea over the years, and so it proved on Sunday.
The Reds 2–0 victory over the league leaders will have restored some semblance of normality and self-respect to the Merseyside giants. The fact that out of form star striker Fernando Torres bagged both goals is an added bonus. Manager Roy Hodgson must have been thinking that Torres simply wasn’t interested since the departure of fellow Spaniard Rafa Benitez, so woeful had some of the No. 9’s performances been this season.
But this was vintage Torres. The game was only 11 minutes old when Dirk Kuyt took John Terry out of the equation with a cleverly chipped cross over the Chelsea skipper’s head. Torres took one touch and slotted the ball clinically past Petr Cech in the Chelsea goal. This did wonders, not only for the striker’s confidence, but also for the confidence of his teammates.
They more than held their own for the remainder of the first half and then on 44 minutes came the defining moment of the match. Torres gathered the ball near the left hand corner of the 18-yard box and curled a right-footed shot inside Cech’s left hand post. The sublime strike not only gave the goalkeeper no chance, but the swerve took it past defenders Branislav Ivanovic and Terry.
It was inevitable that Chelsea would throw everything at Liverpool in the second period, and they had their chances, but with Jamie Carragher restored to the center of the defense, the Reds kept a much better shape than of late, and held out for a memorable victory that propelled them up to ninth in the table.
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